Board wants to buy part of Detroit’s trash incinerator

DETROIT — The quasi-public board which oversees the operation of the city’s controversial trash incinerator is considering buying a significant share in the nation’s largest trash burning facility.

The Greater Detroit Resource Recovery Authority which is made up of mayoral appointees, many of whom were first appointed by then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is floating the idea of buying more than 30 percent of the controversial incinerator and potentially buy the whole thing, the Metro Times reported this week.

The idea may seem strange in a time when the city is scraping up money to plug a ballooning deficit and selling city assets to ease the grim fiscal burden.

The Metro Times notes:

“There’s a fair amount of irony there, considering that more than $1 billion Detroit tax dollars have already been spent to construct the plant, add air pollution equipment and pay off the financing debt — even though it sold the facility in the early 1990s to help solve a budget shortfall. Now the city is free and clear of all financial obligations. And it is thinking about re-purchasing what it once owned?

Mayor Dave Bing, who said he was opposed to Detroit’s method of trash disposal during his campaign this spring, now firmly backs GDRRA and appointed a top aide, Charles Beckham, to oversee the board’s operations.